canyoneering subway

my sister was canyoneering in Zions last week, and ended up rescuing 3 people who had spent the weekend stranded. She was explaining it and it sounded terrifying! I am so glad everyone made it out ok.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

kel is in the light blue helmet, blue backpack and wetsuit.

 above is the actual "subway" part, look how fast that water is rushing! Kel was saying that it was hard to keep steady because the current was so strong! Plus, imagine if you hadn't eaten for 3 days, I would be pretty unsure of my footings too!

Above, the biggest challenge of the route. A waterfall with a very technical rappel. It took 1 hr 45 mins to get their entire group through safely.

A man spent a very cold night here in this alcove. It was between 2 difficult waterfalls.

above, there's my sis in the blue helmet. This was before they heard the 1st man whistling for help.

seriously, waist deep! Because of the diffuculty of the subway at that time, and because of the size of the group, they didn't finish hiking until 11pm. Seth was up watching the news and heard a story about 11 stranded hikers, he rushed in to the bedroom and was like: hey, wasn't your sister hiking the subway today? We texted her immediately and she responded: "yes, that was us, no we weren't stranded, we were helping others out. Long story but I'm ok. Just tired."

Interestingly, we had done this same hike in August and the water was a stream. Ankle deep, at most. It was still challenging in August because it is a lot of hiking; the subway is a very long route. And, most of the scenery is not that impressive. If I were to introduce someone to Zions National Park, I would say do the Narrows, bottom up. Its not technical, but it is fun and has some spectacular scenery.  The subway is beautiful at the actual subway spot, where most of the photos are taken, but getting to that point is a long  hike with lots of stream crossings and route-finding.